'^•v. 



§. THOIW3HT3 J 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Chap, Copyright No. 

Shelf,_A*AS 

UNITED STATES OF AMER: 



s 



Treasured Thoughts 






[the library 

[Of CONOR* 8 * 1 



^dv^^^^gTcKSx. 



-^rw 




He held aloft the torch of Truth 
That showed the better way ; 

His life became the light of men, 
And changed their night to day. 

For him we weave no fading bays, 
We crown, him with our love ; 

For life so rich and fair we praise 
The Lord of Life above." 

— REV. CHAS. G. AMES. 



lN( *W" V.^ 








OCT 2 



BOSTON 
THE SFARRELL PRINT 

1896 




^ 



ft 



& 



7> <^> 



Copyrighted, 1896, by The Sparrell Print. 



LC Control Number 




tmp96 029026 



PREFACE. 



The selections in this little book have been made 
from sermons and talks of Rev. S. H. Winkley, who 
has now completed his fiftieth year as pastor of 
Bulflnch-Place Chapel. 

It is our hope that the truth, in all its simplicity 
and beauty as shown in his own words, may in this 
way be a daily help and comfort to all who already 
know and love him, and through them passed on to 
others ; for, as he has said : — 

" Let us comfort others with the comforts that 
comfort us." 

A. F. B. 

Boston, August, 
1896. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 



" Samuel H. Winkley was born in Portsmouth, 
N. H., April 5, 1819, where he remained until his 
fifteenth year, and where he passed through the 
ordinary course of grammar and high school studies. 
During these years he had also given more or less 
service in three different stores. 

" The inner life being the real life, it is of more con- 
sequence than any mere incidents of outward expe- 
rience. Mr. Winkley was born into a religious 
society that was strongly Calvinistic, and into a home 
that was nominally so ; but as there were no trammels 
put upon his early thinking, or upon his frankly utter- 
ing and comparing his thoughts with those of his 
brothers and friends, it was impossible to avoid the 
tendency to many-sidedness. So far as business 
training was concerned, each store in which the boy 
worked had its own characteristic influence upon 
him ; but to one employer, an honest Scotchman, 

5 



Mr. Winkley owes more for aid in establishing his 
own standard of thorough honesty and moral con- 
sistency than perhaps to any other person. 

" From his eighth year Mr. Winkley was an 
interested attendant upon the meeting for religious 
inquiries. Having been trained in the then common 
idea of sudden conversions, and not being able, 
though a diligent seeker therefor, to realize any such 
instant change, he continued with unabated interest 
to hope for it until his fourteenth year. The hymns 
that he had learned, together with the theological 
atmosphere he breathed, led him to think with dread 
of the doom which awaited the unconverted after 
death. In his fourteenth year, during a revival, he 
came to the conclusion that no ' conversion ' was to 
be allowed him, and after a great deal of thought and 
feeling he decided simply to ask pardon for all the 
errors of the past, and to consecrate his future life to 
the love and service of God and man, — leaving all 
else to the Heavenly Father. A man may grow 
sceptical concerning theological views, he may even 
become a positive unbeliever ; but no one can ques- 
tion the reality of such an experience as this. He 
was soon after received into the Orthodox church, 
where he continued to be interested in Sunday-school 
work, in tract distribution, and in other such mission- 
ary effort as a boy may engage. Soon after his union 
with the church he left home. 

6 



" For the next five years, — that is until his twen- 
tieth year, — Mr. Winkley was in different stores in 
Boston, Providence, and Portland. He was then 
called back to Portsmouth by the death of his eldest 
brother. After a short stay in his native city he 
returned to Boston and became a salesman in a 
wholesale dry-goods house, boarding with a relative 
in Charlestown, — in every place keeping up his 
activity in Sunday-school work. It was in connection 
with a mutual-instruction class in the Orthodox 
Sunday-school in Charlestown, that he was led dili- 
gently to study the New Testament in its bearing 
upon Calvinistic doctrines. Finding no sufficient 
evidence in the Gospels or the Epistles that Jesus or 
the apostles taught election or foreordination, the 
personality of the Holy Spirit, the deity of Christ, or 
vicarious atonement, he rejected these doctrines and 
accepted those that seemed to him at once more 
rational and more Scriptural. This change was 
wrought very unwillingly, for all his religious sympa- 
thies were with the Orthodox. It cost him a great 
many hours of diligent and prayerful study ; but the 
views that then seemed to him true, and have so 
continued for fifty years, compelled him to part 
theological company with his old friends (though it 
was not at once a denominational separation) and to 
declare himself not a Trinitarian. 

" The next few years of Mr. Winkley's life were 

7 



spent in Providence. He continued to work with 
the Orthodox as a tract distributor and in holding 
neighborhood meetings. He attempted to form an 
association of young men of all denominations for 
spiritual culture and for general Christian work. 
From this circle he was practically excommunicated 
at its first regular meeting, by the members adopting, 
through the counsel of older persons, a decidedly 
Trinitarian platform. He then united himself with 
the Unitarians. He taught in one of their Sunday- 
schools, and helped to gather the first ministry-at- 
large Sunday-school in another part of the city, 
becoming its superintendent. He now gave nearly 
all his leisure time to the furtherance of this successful 
attempt to establish a ministry-at-large work. As a 
result of this he was finally led to take the advice and 
avail himself of the co-operation of interested friends, 
and to fit himself to enter the Theological School at 
Cambridge. From this School Mr. Winkley was 
graduated in 1846, at the age of twenty-seven, and 
immediately received and accepted an invitation 
of the Benevolent Fraternity of Churches of 
Boston to become its Minister-at-Large, having in 
charge the Pitts-Street Chapel, in which relation, 
though afterward occupying the new chapel in 
Bulfinch Place, he has remained fifty years. 

" During his theological course and the first few 
years of his ministry, Mr. Winkley passed through 

8 



the mental experience to which every candid mind 
leaving Calvinism is liable, as well as those profounder 
tests of Christian faith which great afflictions always 
bring. From that time to this there has been 
a growing conviction in his mind, strengthened by 
constant contact with a large number as well as a 
great variety of persons in every walk of life, that 
Christianity as taught by Christ is the essential need 
of humanity, by which the race must be eventually 
advanced to the realization of its highest hopes ; and 
that instead of mere creed and ritual — as important 
as these may be in their way — and the saving of 
one's self, either here or hereafter, there must be the 
fulness of that active love which seeks in ail things 
the pleasure of the Heavenly Father and the best 
interests of all His children. Working steadily to 
the realization of this object has not only rendered 
his long ministry delightful in its heart relations, but 
also abundantly blessed in its results to individuals 
and families, — financially, intellectually, socially, and 
spiritually making his church and Sunday-school a 
band of co-workers, and his congregation a delightful 
family. 

" It is very difficult to make one, unacquainted 
with the inner workings of Bulfinch-Place Chapel, 
understand the near and dear personal relation which 
Mr. Winkley has sustained to his people for these 
fifty years. As a good father watches over his family, 



so has Mr. Winkley watched over his people. He 
has guided the young, warned the erring, encouraged 
the down-hearted, cheered the afflicted, given counsel 
to those needing such, confirmed those who were in 
the right path and by his magnetic influence and 
beautiful personal example, under all circumstances, 
been an inspiration and stronghold to young and old. 

" Never until ' the secrets of all hearts shall be 
revealed,' will it be known how many could say of 
this pastor of fifty years : ' You were my savior, my 
deliverer ; you opened my spiritual eyes and showed 
me the way of Life /' 

" His people love him and have loved him with a 
very tender and abiding love which time cannot 
efface, — ■ which eternity will strengthen. 

" Mr. Winkley's influence has by no means been 
confined to the chapel in which he has so long 
ministered ; it has gone out far and wide. He has 
had a happy, God -given faculty of impressing his life 
upon the lives of others. This is the noblest kind of 
literature, — not book-printing, but soul-printing. A 
collection of Mr. Winkley's works in this direction 
would fill a pretty large library. The faithful, 
noble, and consecrated ministry of the pastor of 
Bulfinch- Place Chapel deserves on earth the cordial 
recognition and benediction which it is sure to get 
in heaven." 



IO 



Treasured Thoughts 



January \ 

If you will not love God entirely, at least 
let Him have supreme control over you. 
You will pass on into the New Year wish- 
ing everybody-happiness and mean it ; not 
a happy first of January, but a happy year. 
Do you mean it ? Is there enough in your 
heart to mean it ? Do you care enough for 
God ? Then let us enter with this spirit the 
new year as if it were our last year. 

January 2 

You want this new year to be a happy 
one. Do not try to be happy. You are 
about to do something God does not want 
you to do. You are to say, " I will not do 
it." No matter about the next time ; do 
not do it now, because it is God's wish. 
Then the year will be a happy one. 

13 



January 3 

Let us enter the new year with more 
faith. Have you confidence enough in 
God to know that what seems most wrong 
must be all right ? Instead of making the 
best of things, some people dwell upon the 
wrong ; talk it up ; torment themselves 
and their neighbors with it. If there were 
only more love in the world, more kind- 
ness, if people would only consider others, 
then we should have happiness. 

January 4 

Everything we have in this world that is 
worth having is from God. What are we 
doing in return? All He asks of us is to 
do His wish, and He never asks us to do 
anything that is not best. 

January 5 

Each time we eat the morsel of bread at 
the Communion, let us once more renew 
our membership in Christ's Sunday-school 
class ; once more say, " Our Father, nearer 
and dearer to Thee, e'en though it be a 
cross that raiseth me." 

14 



January 6 

If you cannot say " God," say ''Right," 
for Right is God, since God is Right. But 
you cannot act for the right unless you act 
for God, who is the Source of the right. 

January 7 

Must a man comprehend eternity before 
he can use time ? Must he comprehend 
infinity before he can use space? Must he 
comprehend God, whom he knows as the 
Eternal Source of his being ? Certainly 
not ! He understands enough in regard 
to time and space to use such portion of 
them as he needs. He has but a finite 
look of the Infinite. He may not find God 
though he travel a thousand million of 
miles. But when he thinks, when he feels 
his heart beat, when he lifts his arm and 
uses the power in it, — then he finds in 
him the Power in whom he thinks, and 
moves, and has his being. 

January 8 

Sin is indifference toward Infinite Love. 
A man is freed from sin whenever his whole 

15 



inner life is clean ; whenever his intent 

and purpose are on the right side. The 

evidence of being freed from sin is a 
Christian Life. 

January 9 

So live that everybody who comes in 
contact with you will be able to say that 
your tone of voice is just right, your man- 
ner is kind, everything about you indicates 
that you must have been with Christ and 
acquired His disposition. Then peace will 
abound on the earth. 

January 10 

We have to advance in order to hold our 
own. There is no true existence without 
growth. 

January 1 1 

No matter how white the lie when it 
leaves your mouth, it gets black enough 
in time. 

January 12 

Physical things are physically discerned. 
Spiritual things are spiritually discerned. 
There is no way of knowing what love is 

16 



except by loving ; no way of knowing what 
love and trust to God are except by 
possessing them. 

January 13 

In our homes there are ugly dispositions. 
The tendency is to stand up for ourselves. 
Instead of being patient and trying to win 
the others to the right, we are trying to 
make out that " I am right." But that is 
not the spirit of Christ. Now, when shall 
we learn a wiser lesson than that ? When 
we understand the Father. When we get 
to that point, our one thought will be, how 
we can serve these persons. And the 
Father is right there and in some way says 
to us, " Inasmuch as ye do it unto the least 
of these, my children, ye do it unto me." 

January J 4 

Selfishness separates in a very cruel 
way. What we need in our homes is 
interest in each other, not as a family, 
but as individuals. Let our homes breathe 
the atmosphere of peace and kindliness. 
You say you have tried and failed. Well, 
"let .the dead past bury its dead." It is 

17 



to-day, to-day! Only one moment at a 
time ! We may fail again and again. No 
matter. " Renew the battle every day and 
help divine implore." 

January 15 

Jesus knew that his being lifted up on 
the cross would do more in the world than 
all the coronations he could have had. 

January 16 

Morality is a correct relation which one 
person sustains to others. If a man lived 
on an island by himself he could have no 
morality. When his morality is inspired 
by interest in others, then he has philan- 
thropy. Philanthropy is a positive, actual 
interest in others. It is character regu- 
lated to please those about us. It is more 
than mere honesty, for instance, — there is 
generosity in it. 

January 17 

The first step in growing into a relation 
with God is to prove an awakened interest 
in Him by acknowledging a past indiffer- 



ence. God will accept our apology — that 
is, He will accept us. 

January 18 

Piety is interest in God. Philanthropy 
is interest in man. Our interest in char- 
acter never becomes what it ought to be 
until we get interested in God. Some 
people come to God with great emotion 
and fervor, but with no inclination or deter- 
mination to do what he asks them to do. 
Piety is not emotion ; it is not a creed ; it 
is simply interest in God. 

January 19 

Do not be afraid to do the small things. 
A joke is sometimes the sweetest thing in 
the world. 

January 20 

It has been said of the Sermon on the 
Mount that it is mere morality. Well, if it 
is, the living of it is the way the angels are 
made. 

January 21 

There is a great difference between 
forgiveness and having all the conse- 

19 



quences of wrong-doing wiped out. A 
teacher can forgive a pupil for having 
neglected his studies, but his forgiveness 
does not make the pupil a fine scholar ; he 
still has to suffer the consequences of 
neglecting his studies. 

January 22 

As we go farther up the scale of right 
living we become interested in our enemies, 
and when we bless them there is a feeling 
of grandeur, of manliness, which lifts us 
mountains high. 

January 23 

God so over-rules everything we have in 
the way of difficulties, afflictions and trials 
that the man who uses them rightly can 
say, " All things (do) work together for 
good." 

January 24 

People order things from God as they 
would from a shop, and then when they do 
not receive them they become sceptical as 
to prayer. If they realized the object of 
prayer they would not lose faith. Prayer 
is talking with God. 



20 



January 25 

I would have the Sunday used to get 
light, to get knowledge as to how to perfect 
character, how to interest ourselves in our 
neighbors, how to make life exactly what 
God wants us to make it. 

January 26 

Law pervades everything. Because of 
this law we inherit a great deal of mischief 
such as disease, etc. If this were not true, 
we could not calculate about anything. 
The Infinite Wisdom knew exactly how to 
arrange this at the start. If we could not 
inherit the mischief we could not inherit 
the good which comes to us. 

January 21 

Why should we not comfort others with 
the comforts that comfort us ? 

January 28 

" Three times three are nine." " Love 
your enemies." Both of these are eternal 
truths from God. Why have any more 

21 



solemnity about one, than the other? Why 
not practise one as well as the other ? 

January 29 

God is our Father and whatever He has 
planned from the remote past is not planned 
by a mere machine or law-giver, but by a 
Father, and so we have faith that He will 
over-rule all things for the best. 

January 30 

Our world comes out of our life and our 
life comes out of what we welcome into it 
ourselves. It is not the much, but the 
kind of things a man seeks that makes 
life. 

January 3 J 

The object of worship is to come 
together and sing " Nearer, dear Father, 
to Thee," and to feel the nearness and to 
grow into the nearness every day that it 
may go on for all eternity. 



22 



February 1 

Nine-tenths of our actions are based 
upon faith. The actual knowledge we 
have of the affairs of life is very limited. 

February 2 

The obstacle between you and perfect 
peace is the want of perfect faith. Faith 
is confidence in the dark. Intelligent faith 
is trust with a reason. The man who has 
an intelligent faith is a calm, peaceful man. 

February 3 

The trusting child of God is at peace ; 
the sceptical child, in trouble. The trust- 
ing child feels quite sure that if he could 
see the thing as God sees it, he would will 
it as God wills it. 

February 4 

We cannot pile money high enough to 
compare it with one single heart filled with 
affection. 

23 



February 5 

The more Jesus was the Son of Man 
the more He was the Son of God. Let us 
take Jesus as our Sunday-school teacher, 
and let each one of us reproduce His life. 

February 6 

We are sure of God's presence. We 
are sure of His personal interest because 
He works in no two persons alike. 

February 7 

If you and I want to do the wisest thing 
with one hour in each Sunday of the week, 
we shall not forsake the assembling of 
ourselves together, but shall turn to the 
right hand and left, and say, " Come into 
the house of the Lord and we shall have 
peace. Our lives shall be fountains of 
blessedness; our homes shall be happy." 
Here is a good and sufficient reason why 
we should come together for one single 
solitary hour on Sunday, to learn to sing 
love-songs to God, to breathe our little 
prayers to Him, to awaken in ourselves 
and in others an interest in Him, so that 

24 



we can say, " Nearer, my God, to Thee," 
and wherever we shall go we shall be chil- 
dren of God. 

February 8 

We may enjoy a sunset and understand 
all the science of its production ; how the 
rays through the moisture of the air, etc, 
cause it ; but that is quite different from 
feeling that the Loving Power is back of it 
all, giving it to us, as well as the power to 
enjoy. 

February 9 

To treat self well, to care for others as 
for other selves, and to sustain the right 
relation to God is to live the Higher Life. 

February 10 

Christ would have us serve people in 
whatever way they need. Not only should 
we serve our friends, but strangers, — ene- 
mies, if we have any. Just as soon as 
people understand by doing and living out 
" Love your enemies" they know what is 
meant by " The pure in heart see God," 
for the selfishness goes out of them. They 

25 



see that God is love and that he that loveth 
knoweth God. 

February 11 

God speaks to us and speaks to us 
distinctly, too. When we are hungry it is 
his expressed wish for us to eat. If we eat 
or drink to excess we find by the results 
that he is entering a protest. If we intelli- 
gently listen and wish to be guided by Him, 
we cannot misunderstand Him. 

February 12 

The meaning of the cross is this : As 
Christ was willing to lay down his life, so 
we should be willing to make any sacrifice 
that comes in our way ; willing to deny 
ourselves all that is unchristian. Christ's 
suffering on the cross has been the inspira- 
tion of many people who have suffered for 
the sake of teaching goodness in the world. 

February 13 

A tendency, a thought, a feeling, which 
we may have in the wrong direction, are 
all guarantees of our freedom. But when 

26 



we cherish any of these, then we are sinful. 
The character is formed by the way we 
choose to gratify or use the tendencies, 
thoughts and feelings. 

February 14 

God protests by consequences when we 
do wrong, and pleads with us through the 
beauty of a sweet life to follow that 
example. 

February 15 

God so loves mankind that He is 
constantly asking that he may give Himself 
to His children. He only waits for the 
door to open. 

February 1 6 

A good-tempered person having the 
energy to always keep good-tempered, in 
spite of everything, is much stronger than 
an ill-tempered person. 

February 17 

Unless a person is filled with heaven he 
will not find any heaven hereafter. 

27 



February 18 

Some people in the midst of affliction, 
when bearing trial after trial, are so full of 
peace and gladness, cheerfulness and sweet- 
ness, that we say, "The kingdom of heaven 
is here." 

February 19 

The dear Father is always patient. We 
may be ignorant of him ; live in the world 
without Him. We may be simply bipeds 
in the world, not knowing that we are 
children of the Eternal Father ; yet He is 
patient; waiting to put a new thought in 
our minds, a new longing in our hearts. 

February 20 

If you choose to remain in hell, get as 
many others into heaven as possible, and 
you will find yourself going in on the tide. 

February 21 

If, as people are drawn to God they will 
yield to his influence, they will worship in 
spirit and in truth. 

28 



February 22 

How can a man be a bad citizen who 
bears love to God and his neighbor ? 
Whatever he can do for his country, what- 
ever he can do for his family or his 
neighbor, he will delight to do. 

February 23 

If a person has faith only as small as a 
grain of mustard seed, and shares it with 
some one else, he will find his faith grow. 

February 24 

We cannot find a thing that Jesus ever 
taught which, if we take the spirit of it into 
our lives, will not work well. There is 
nothing like experience to give you the 
test of all the teachings of Jesus. 

February 25 

Everybody has and knows their own 
sorrows and trials the best. If we can 
only get into the Father's arms, as a little 
child gets into its mother's arms, and 
mother kisses the spot and makes it well ; 
if we will only feel that in the Father's arms 

29 



all is well, and bear a song away, then we 
will understand faith. 

February 26 

One of the grandest prayers ever offered 
is that which Jesus offered, " May we all 
be one as the Father and I are one." 

February 27 

We may deny the miracles of the loaves 
and fishes and all the other miracles, but 
we cannot deny the miracle of the benevo- 
lence of Christ's love. 

February 28 

God made us to be the best physically, 
mentally, spiritually. When disease comes 
into a family God is more sorry than we 
are. How could He prevent the child 
from being sick and taken away ? You 
ask him to do a miracle if you ask him to 
continue the child under such circum- 
stances. Do you love your child ? Would 
you do him an injury ? Suppose you 
loved him one thousand times more than 
you do, would you kill him ? Well, God 

30 



loves your child infinitely more than you 
do. 

February 29 

Jesus revealed the power of man to rise 
above all sorts of afflictions up into the life 
which never asks a question as to whether 
anything is to be won or lost, but takes 
every opportunity to run God's errands of 
love and bless everybody. 



31 



March \ 

What makes a bad temper ? Looking 
out only for Number One, and in a very 
bad way. The very moment there comes in 
an interest in some one else, the bad tem- 
per will be gone. 

March 2 

Christ considered that the truest love to 
the Father was love to the Father's 
children. 

March 3 

There is no difference between love to 
an enemy, love to a friend, or love to God. 
The difference is in the relation sustained. 

March 4 

The Father will overcome all things for 
the right. When He made the world He 

33 



knew what He was doing. His plan is just 
as fresh today as it was yesterday. God is 
not working by machinery. 

March 5 

Divine Providence means faith in God 
and not in the event ; faith that He is able 
and wise enough and good enough to lay 
a plan and execute it, whether we see it to 
the best or not. 

March 6 

If God is to explain to us everything he 
does, where is our trust? We should then 
walk by sight. The question is, is God 
good? If He is, we can trust Him. If 
He is bad, then I would not try to trust 
Him. If you can discover in any way that 
God is good, that He cares for you as an 
individual, then trust Him ; but do not ask 
Him to do impossible things. How are 
you going to have faith in God without 
realizing His goodness ? What makes you 
see ? God is giving you the power. 
He is in you this very moment, giving you 
the power to see and hear and exercise all 
your faculties. Can you get hot and cold 

34 



water out of the same fountain ? If you 
see that in ninety out of one hundred 
things God is seeking your best interest, 
then you ought to trust Him in the other 
ten things that you cannot understand. 
We certainly have good reason for our 
faith. 

March 7 

When we have done what we can, — not 
when we succeed, perhaps, but when we 
attempt, — if we listen we shall hear the 
Father saying, "Well done, well done, thou 
art my beloved son in whom I am well 
pleased." That is heaven enough ! 

March 8 

We are in the race course. We have 
made some progress, though we have not 
reached the goal. We cannot keep out of 
sight of people. They will find us out. 
They recognize our weak points and our 
strong points. This ought to increase in 
us more ambition. What joy, what glad- 
ness, to be able to say at the end of life 
that we have done the thing that has car- 
ried joy into people's hearts, and that we 
have confirmed some people in the right. 

35 



March 9 

A scholar cannot be one for a specified 
time and then be an ignoramus. So a 
person who loves you must love you every- 
where. If a person loves God supremely, 
he must do everything" to the glory of God. 
Everything will indicate his intense interest 
in the Father. 

March JO 

The aim of the church is to make you 
exactly like Christ ; to fill your mind and 
heart with the thought of Christ ; to make 
you a Jesusite. Christ did not come to be 
served, but to serve — to give his life as a 
ransom for others. 

March 11 

We find we have little time for study 
and the things we delight to do, and this 
teaches us to use our time properly. 

March 12 

You are simply called upon to take 
things day by day. Act to-day. You can 
stand it for to-day, can't you ? You are 

36 



not called upon to trust Him for to-mor- 
row. " Sufficient unto the day is the evil 
thereof." Sufficient unto the forenoon, 
the half-hour, if need be. You can stand 
anything, minute by minute, if you have 
perfect confidence that the good Father is 
watching over you and has a good purpose 
in it all. 

March 13 

Our chief motive in life should be to say, 
" Father, for you," and then try to do His 
will for His sake, not for heaven, and then 
will come the peace which passeth the 
understanding, for we shall be doing it for 
no other reason than because we have 
fallen in love with the Infinite Love. 

March 14 

It is a great pity that we cannot keep 
distinct our bodies and ourselves. We use 
these hands, these eyes, these ears, this 
brain, but these are simply parts of the 
house in which we dwell. If we could 
only learn that we never really see the 
indweller, but only his manifestations, we 
should understand that we see God through 
his manifestations. 

37 



March 15 

It is very easy to say we love people. 
We do not love them half the time. What 
we mean is we want them to love us. We 
say, " I love you," but the very moment 
a little coolness comes up, then the love is 
gone. Now the love that can survive the 
fading out of the love of the other is Chris- 
tian. Christ taught that idea of love. 
People who have this kind appreciate love 
more than those who drive a barter trade 
in it. 

March 16 

Jesus thought prosperity was finding a 
way to bless, to serve, to give himself 
whole-heartedly to God. 

March 17 

You cannot mention a single tempta- 
tion, that is, an opportunity with the desire 
to do wrong, that there is not also an 
opportunity to bless, to do the right, at the 
same time. 

March 18 

If books exert such an influence as we 
know they do, how much greater must be 
the influence of our lives ! 

38 



March 19 

Let us in everything we do, pray. If 
we eat, or drink, or sleep, let us remember 
it is entirely under the charge of the dear 
Father that we are able to do these things, 
and let us thank Him. If we want to have 
a closer walk with Him, let us talk with 
Him. That is the way we cultivate the 
acquaintance of people — by talking with 
them. Why not with God ? 



March 20 

There is nothing which God has given 
us which is not a cause for gratitude. We 
sometimes charge Him with our own follies, 
as well as those of other people, but we 
know God intends always to bless us. The 
question is do you wish to rise into the 
manly and womanly condition of gratitude 
to the One from whom you receive all these 
things ? If you do, do you care to spend 
an hour a week in ascertaining whether 
He has any choices ; to express your grati- 
tude and hear His wish ? 



39 



March 21 

Are you prepared to say to a friend who 
has lost a loved one, " Do not believe in 
death for a moment. Your loved one has 
merely gone out of the shell into the next 
condition of things, and you presently are 
going into the place prepared for you in 
the next world to meet your loved ones, 
and their going gives an added charm to 
the next world ? Mothers never forsake 
their children : the Infinite Mother will 
never do so." 

March 22 

Seven-eighths of all we do in this world 
is done through faith by dire necessity. 
We ascertain through knowledge the path- 
way of faith, and then we walk in that 
pathway by faith. 

March 23 

Scepticism comes from charging God 
with human folly. 

March 24 

If there is anything true known concern- 
ing God, it is that He is long-suffering. 

4 o 



March 25 

Love is never blind ; affection often is. 
The more interested you are in another, 
the more you will see his faults and try to 
help him correct them ; but you will also 
try to hide them from the sight of others. 

March 26 

What was the need of the crucifixion of 
Christ ? Because His work could not have 
been accomplished without it. 

March 27 

Many people are essentially affected by 
disagreeable weather. This, then, is the 
time, the opportunity, to cultivate cheerful- 
ness and hopefulness. There is no chance 
to cultivate it in pleasant weather. The man 
who has the opportunity to cultivate his 
cheerfulness, is the man who is blessed. 

March 28 

The missing of our loved ones is a sort 
of prophecy that we are going to see them 
again. 

41 



March 29 

Have you risen with Christ ? Have you 
begun the resurrection ? If you have, do 
not stop at any low level. Come up high- 
er, and say to yourself, O, for a closer walk 
with God, until you and the Father are so 
completely one that there is not a single 
thing that separates you from Him. Then 
this Easter Sunday will be a grand Easter 
Day. We shall be risen with Christ indeed, 
and we shall be all right for the day and all 
right for eternity. 

March 30 

God never deals with us in a mechanical 
way. He deals with us just as He does in 
every heart relation. 

March 31 

We talk of " Fate " about things because 
we are ignorant of the cause. As soon as 
we become enlightened we understand it is 
no blind force (fate), but God's plan. 



42 



April \ 

Do not seek for the living among the 
dead, but let us lift our eyes, if we are 
risen with Christ, and seek our loved ones 
above ; then when the meeting comes we 
shall not only have cherished the thought, 
but we shall be ready to join these eternal 
throngs in service to God. 

April 2 

No matter if a man does not believe in 
immortality ; he cannot put out the sun 
because he is blind. 

April 3 

I am amazed to know how little real 
faith there is in the world. People talk 
faith, but they do not possess it. They 
say God is good, that they ought to trust 
Him, and then when anything happens in 
the way of affliction they say, "Oh, why 

43 



did this happen ? Why was my child taken 
away?" Is that faith? Faith is walking 
not by sight, not by explanation. It is 
knowing in whom you trust and trusting 
without sight. It means if He takes my 
child, it is all right. If He takes my health, 
it is all right. Yes, you say, but how do 
you make it all right ? I do not try to ; 
that is just the point. I have faith that 
it is. 

April 4 

Do people go to a bureau drawer and 
look at the clothing of a friend who has 
gone and say the friend is there ? Well, 
graves are God's bureau drawers in which 
are laid cast-off garments, and there is no 
more reason in saying our loved ones are 
there than in saying so when looking in 
the bureau drawers at home. And not 
so much, for broadcloth and silk last much 
longer than the body. 

April 5 

Do you suppose that if we do our part 
without fretting or worrying, just going on 
cheerfully, cheerfully, no matter what the 
circumstances may be, doing what God 

44 



wants us to do, being what God wants us 
to be, that He will not hold us closer to 
His heart and recognize that we are trying 
to be angels on the earth ? We have only 
to put our hands in His. He is our guide 
and we have nothing to do but to put our 
hands in His and trust. 

April 6 

Climb up on to the cross and make it a 
matter of self- crucifixion, and say, I am 
going to do all I can for others, appreci- 
ated or not appreciated. 

April 7 

Shall a farmer instead of plowing and 
sowing ask God to give him a crop ? Cer- 
tainly not ! Let him make his verbal 
prayer a prayer of action. The seed is 
God's, the soil is God's, the germinating 
power is God's. When the farmer pre- 
pares God's soil and sows God's seed, he 
thereby asks Him to cause the seed to grow. 
"Actions speak louder than words." In 
this case they are acceptable to God, but 
the mere words are useless. Here the 
farmer asks for a crop by deeds. His 

45 



request meets a response. Does this man 
show any less faith in God than the man 
who prays verbally ? Certainly not ! This 
man has both the understanding and spirit 
as far as he goes. What he may lack is 
the consciousness of the Source and so the 
gratitude which ennobles the recipient of a 
gift. So it is in the spiritual life ; let us 
plow and sow and pray. While we work 
God will work in us to will and to do. 

April 8 

We are working for the next generation. 
It is not enough for us to recognize that 
our wrong-doing affects ourselves ; we 
must realize that we transmit the conse- 
quences. 

April 9 

If we would be true disciples of Christ, 
if we would attain to the highest, let us 
go about doing good. 

April 10 

Justice is perfectly fair dealing ; a prac- 
tical recognition of the rights of others ; 
seeing things just as they are. 

4 6 



April U 

What has become of my loved one ? 
Dead ? Some people say " Yes." Crape 
is appropriate for them. But here is a man 
who comes and sits at the feet of Jesus. 
Jesus says to him, " In my Father's house 
are many mansions. I go to prepare a 
place for you." Is that true ? Well, this 
man is just foolish enough to have faith in 
Jesus. He asks himself one question. Is 
the Eternal Father as good as this Jesus ? 
Is it true that we are growing here in this 
little nursery, until, having gained expe- 
rience, we shall presently* move on — 
where we cannot tell — but somewhere 
under God's care? This man thinks it is 
simply sufficient to have faith in Jesus, 
who seems to have known the Father as 
very few people have known him. Out of 
this faith springs a hope, an expectation 
(not a proof), that the Father has some- 
thing in the next world for him. It is 
God's arrangement that hearts shall come 
together and he will not separate them. 
What a difference it makes! Can it be 
possible that we can thus be cheated by 
this joy and grandeur if it were not the 

47 



truth ? Error leads people down hill into 
the darkness ; truth is always elevating 
and ennobling. 

April 12 

The only one who achieves perfect suc- 
cess in life is the true child of God. 

April 13 

The way to redeem people is to so fill 
them with the good that the good crowds 
out the bad. 

April 14 

The tempted should be as strong in 
resisting as the tempter in tempting. If 
you yield to temptation you are an enemy 
to the other person. If you tempt, of 
course you do wrong. 

April 15 

We are running a race. Christ is our 
goal and also our leader. There is not a 
thing which comes in our way which does 
not help us reach that goal, led by Christ. 

April 16 

He who through his interest in others 
undertakes to work along a pathway of 

4 8 



right, gets his perception sharpened and 
sees the right more clearly. 

April \1 

The man who seeks the light and works 
with God, doing what He would have him 
do, will find that there is not a solitary 
thing that will not contribute to his eleva- 
tion. 

April 18 

The matter of prayer has been an obsta- 
cle in the way of a great many Christian 
people. It would not be so if they followed 
Paul's advice to pray with the spirit and 
the understanding also. Some people 
think the only way to pray is by words, 
but prayer is any expressed wish to God, 
whether formulated into words or not. If 
when a man plants seed he is conscious it 
is God's seed, that it is God's soil, and he 
then asks God to give him the harvest, he 
is praying with the spirit and the under- 
standing also. God has ordered certain 
means through which we obtain certain 
results, and we must of necessity comply 
with those means in order to get the de- 
sired results. He never gave the world to 

49 



understand that a man could become an 
athlete by verbal prayer. No, but he 
must go to the gymnasium and comply 
with the means necessary in order to be- 
come strong. While the man works to 
obtain his strength, God will work with 
him. He who complies with the condi- 
tions God has made is filled with love and 
gratitude to Him and understands prayer. 

April 19 

That which promotes the best interest of 
a nation is a truth from God. The man 
who receives this truth and then puts it 
into practice, because God asks it at his 
hands and because man needs it, is doing 
the right thing. 

April 20 

Let us be sure in our heart of hearts 
that we are not ready to fling an evil for 
an evil. 

April 21 

If there is anything in any line by which 
we can improve ourselves, we do it because 
it is better for us, but that is a very poor 
motive. I doubt if anyone will succeed for 

50 



any length of time in trying to reach his 
ideal if he looks out only for Number One. 
He will forget his aim and think that self 
will be better cared for in some other way. 
He would then, by-and-by, lower the level 
and descend. But let us say that we will 
be what is best for ourselves and for every 
man, woman and child, for our Divine 
Father s sake, and so regulate our lives. 

April 22 

It is astonishing that we do not seek to 
develop more of God in us. We should 
use all means by which we can grasp the 
truth, be able to take broad views of sub- 
jects and go deep into them, and really lay 
hold on that which shall be to the mind 
what nourishment is to the body. 

April 23 

Are you in the habit of cherishing some 
thoughts which you had better not ? Turn 
your mind into different channels, — it will 
be better for all about you. We can tell 
what some people are thinking about just 
by the expression of their countenances. 
Let us in the secret chambers of our 

51 



thoughts cherish such only as we could 
have in public ; not for ourselves alone, 
but for the sake of others. 

April 24 

People are afraid to trust others at all 
because they cannot trust them in certain 
lines. So it is with God. They always 
have faith enough when they want to 
grumble, but they fail to thank Him for the 
good things of life, and have not faith 
enough to believe that the things they 
grumble and complain about will be made 
to work for their good if they will help Him. 

April 25 

If coming together once a week to wor- 
ship, to show our gratitude to God, lifts us 
up into the highest possible condition, how 
important it is ! If all the morning you 
have been down the harbor, reading stories, 
skating, or anything else of the kind, 
(though I don't believe in these doings) 
yet I say that if you spend this one hour, 
week in and week out, until you have 
thought out the beauty and purity of life, 
have brought your heart in closeness to the 

52 



Infinite Heart, the question will be, how 
much time on Sunday, or any other day, 
in fact, how much time every day shall you 
give. 

April 26 

A man may have a great deal of religion, 
interest in a ceremony, creed, or religious 
sentiment, and have very little that may be 
called Christianity. A man to be a Chris- 
tian must have a Christ-like disposition 
and Christ-like character. 

April 27 r 

Some people regard trials as crosses. 
They are benedictions if rightly used. 
One person takes everything of sorrow in 
a terrible way, and talks it over and wants 
pity and sympathy, and thus loses his 
chance of heroism. On the other hand, a 
person who is willing to take every little 
thing in the way of trial and accept it hero- 
ically, encouraging all that is noble and 
manly, will become noble and manly. 

April 28 

It is a pity we do not understand the 
meaning of love. It would save us a great 

53 



many heartaches. I cannot conceive if 
anybody really holds me in his heart, how 
anybody else can turn me out. I am the 
only individual of my sort that God has 
created. 

April 29 

Goodness compels respect from every- 
body. 

April 30 

There is a higher ideal in the church 
than out of it, and nothing testifies to this 
more than the severe criticism made upon 
the misconduct of those in the church. 
And this is all right. Scholars expect to 
receive greater criticism than the ignorant. 



54 




May \ 

I doubt very much the intelligent piety 
of a person who is not cheerful. " God 
loves the cheerful giver." Those people 
who have so much religion and so little 
piety that they cannot rejoice in all the 
good things of this world are defective. 

May 2 

Worship means an act of devotion to the 
Eternal Love. 

May 3 

Some one said "There is a great deal of 
friction in this world that needs oiling. The 
Christians are the ones to apply the oil 
where the friction abounds." Now I say 
that is just it. Show me a Christian and 
you will show me one who has the oil of 
grace, who moves smoothly without any 
creaking wheels and helps others to do the 
same. 

55 



May 4 

Some people argue that it is always 
easier to take the wrong road than to take 
the right. This is only so when one is in 
the habit of taking the wrong path. Now, 
if you have been in the habit of being fret- 
ful and fussy, it will be easier for a time to 
keep in that way. But if you will be 
watchful and try to be kind and patient you 
will find it is easier to go in that way. 

May 5 

Unless you want to set the dog barking 
you must not stir him up, for the spirit of 
wrath is like a wild animal in people and 
the wisest thing to do is to learn not to 
wake it up. 

May 6 

Manners are wonderful creatures of 
influence. 

May 7 

Let us be peacemakers in this world, 
that whatever influence we exert it may be 
as if we were angels. 

56 



May 8 

I have been told again and again that if 
you give a kind answer for an unkind one 
people will impose upon you. I think they 
impose upon you when they put the same 
kind of a spirit in you, and you give back 
the same kind of a word. They impose 
upon you when you resent and do not ride 
over their backs heavenward. 

May 9 

Can we not do more toward getting the 
faith, the strength, which will harmonize 
homes ; that will redeem people from their 
wretched, unhappy condition ; give them 
something more to live for than the mere 
idea of keeping body and soul together 
and then dying without any great struggle ? 
Let us tell them that God loves them and 
that they can become Godlike. 

May 10 

A child never learnt to walk when it first 
got down from its mother's arms. Nobody 
became a perfect singer by running up the 
scale once. Why should we expect in one 

57 



of the grandest attempts of human life, 
namely, the gaining of a sweet disposition, 
to succeed at once. 

May \\ 

It is a great help in anything we are 
attempting to accomplish to see the imper- 
fections of other people. This is perfectly 
true in regard to the bothering dispositions 
of the world. They render great service 
for they give us opportunities to develop 
the Christian life. Let us rejoice in our 
opportunities, though we pity the people 
who furnish them. 



May 12 

People sometimes say that cheerfulness 
is a matter of birth or temperament. Non- 
sense ! A man may be born a very strong, 
muscular man, and from want of using his 
muscles become a very feeble man. And 
a man may be born a very weak man, 
and by use of the gymnasium develop 
into a strong man. It is a miserable plea, 
this matter of birth. I like muscular 
Christianity. 

58 



May 13 

A great many people are frightened 
away from all sorts of Christian influences 
by melancholy. They are made to think 
that in order to be noble it is necessary to 
wear a long face and put out of one's mind 
and life all cheerfulness. This is all wrong. 

May 14 

If you want to get rid of blueness, 
sweeten your disposition ; come out of that 
everlasting sour mood. Look out into 
God's grand heaven and earth, and think 
of somebody who is cheery and gladsome. 

May 15 

The whole secret of my joy and satisfac- 
tion in this world is Love. To love first 
the Eternal Father and out of that to serve 
people because they are God's children. 
A dream of heaven where all hearts are 
like this is something to think about. 

May 16 

How many times I have heard young 
people say, "When I am young I do not 

59 



want to sacrifice the joys of life, as some of 
these religious people do." What folly ! 
Sacrifice what joys ? Holiness ? Right- 
eousness ? Are the joys (so-called) of the 
sinners something to be proud of ? They 
bring slavery. 

May M 

Whenever we get into the habit of doing 
the right things we enjoy doing them 
because that is the way God made us. 

May 18 

There are more than a thousand bless- 
ings bestowed upon us by God, and what 
are we giving in return ? What would you 
think of a person who begged at the door 
every day and said nothing in gratitude ? 
Would you think he was noble ? 

May 19 

Let us appreciate what we have, but let 
us give. 

May 20 

If we would be true disciples of Christ ; 
if we would attain to the highest among 
them, let us go " about doing good." The 

6o 



grandest disciple is he who serves, whether 
appreciated or not. 

May 21 

People come to me and say they are 
perfectly willing to leave off this or that 
bad habit, but this one particular one they 
will not. Very well, but you are on risky 
ground, and do not for your right hand 
allow yourself to add any other bad habits 
to it. Put yourself under the very best 
social and religious influences so that just 
as a physician narrows a disease, trying to 
keep all the rest of the body sound, you 
will keep up your standard and not lower 
your ideal. 

May 22 

A diamond is a diamond without regard 
to setting. Nor does it matter what its 
reputation is. It may be reputed to be far 
more costly than it is, but nevertheless, is 
a diamond of just its own intrinsic value. 
So a man is just what he is, regardless of 
reputation. 

May 23 

For the sake of thoroughly understand- 
ing how good God is to us, we come 

6i 



together on Sunday. There need be noth- 
ing religious about it, but just simple, lov- 
ing gratitude. If you were all my children 
I should say to you, ''Give me your hearts 
and I will risk you." The Infinite Father 
says just that, " Give me your heart. 
Your creed will take care of itself." 



May 24 

When you think that a man's religious 
life has more to do with his happiness and 
his home than anything else, it seems very 
strange that so little time is given to it and 
that so little intelligence accompanies the 
little time that is given. 



May 25 

An opportunity is a blessing. Suppose 
I am associated with somebody who tries 
my patience incessantly and is unreason- 
able. Very well, what a grand opportu- 
nity to have patience. A man cannot be 
strong unless he goes to a gymnasium. A 
man never grows strong in patience unless 
his patience is tried. 

62 



May 26 

Heaven is the eternal inflow of the 
Infinite into us as our capacity increases. 

May 27 

People are apt to believe that they have 
to leap into perfection or else they cannot 
have it. They forget that they had to 
walk before they could run. 

May 28 

There are no circumstances which can 
prevent a man from being a child of God. 
There are circumstances which are very 
much more difficult to manage than others. 
But so it is with scholars ; some studies 
are much more difficult than others. Let 
us manage all the trying circumstances of 
life so as to let our light shine that other 
people may see the truth and glorify our 
Father by doing the same thing. 

May 29 

If you want heroism you must be put 
on the battle-field of life. 

63 



May 30 

Blessed is he who can look upon graves 
and believe none dead. 

May 3 J 

It is not enough for you to get clear 
thought of Christianity. You must spread 
it. Let us give all we can. Begin with 
the first person you get hold of. Only do 
not do it with an eternal preach. If you 
have Christianity in your soul it will come 
out; you cannot bury your knowledge on 
any subject. Do the children who go to 
school leave their knowledge in the school- 
house? If you have Christianity in your 
souls you cannot leave it in the church ; 
you must carry it out into the world. 



6 4 



June 1 

Marriage is not a business partnership ; 
it is not getting a house with some one to 
look after it ; it is not getting a landlady to 
board with ; it is something very much 
beyond partnership. It is two persons — 
that is the idea in creation — becoming 
one ; in the real and actual sense, becoming 
one. 

June 2 

Nothing pulls us down more than treat- 
ing persons according to their position in 
life. There is many an angel hidden away 
behind some of these serving persons. 

June 3 

Belief is simply the intellect rendering 
assent upon evidence. 

65 



June 4 

In love service we have nothing to do 
with the humiliation of failure. We are 
simply looking out that we serve. 



June 5 

If we should make up our minds to be 
satisfied with reading just what we have 
time to read, and not try to be mental glut- 
tons, we should have more actual life. We 
undertake to do in the reading line that 
which, instead of giving clear thought and 
mental vigor, gives us confused thought. 



June 6 

We should never have thought of God 
pitying a sinner, if Christ had not done so. 
We should never have realized how He 
sympathizes with the blind and rejoices 
when their eyes are opened, if Jesus had 
not opened blind eyes. I often think that 
when Jesus took little children in his arms 
the mothers must have understood God 
better in consequence. 

66 



June 7 

A book is not worth anything to us until 
it passes into ourselves and is ourselves. 

June 8 

To many people the words religion and 
God have been spoiled. Interest in the 
dear Father appeals to us more. 

June 9 

People who worry do not live ; they 
merely exist, and their existence is upon 
the rack all the time. 

June 10 

Excess in the way of possessions does 
not add to the happiness of life. All 
excess is loss, no matter in what line. 

June 11 

There is a class of people who never oil 
their wheels ; they always work hard. They 
need to get out of themselves and find 
somebody who will give them the oil of 
cheerfulness and gladsomeness. 

67 



June 12 

It requires a much more lovely character 
to be God-like than it does to be religious. 
Everyone who is filled with the Love-spirit 
is God-like. 

June 13 

In losing my life, that is, giving myself 
to God and His children, I pass into a 
grander life. 

June 14 

The man who loves knows what love is, 
but he cannot explain it, or prove it. The 
man who has faith in his neighbor knows 
it, but he cannot prove it. The man who 
loves God knows it, and out of it he is led 
to the hope, the expectation of immortality. 
He has an experience which those who do 
not love God know nothing about. It 
cannot be reached by logic or reason. 

June 15 

Everyone can judge what he is by the 
way he receives the highest truth and the 
good he is doing in the world. If he 
sweetens, purifies, makes better all who 
come in contact with him, he need not fear. 

68 



June J 6 

God without Jesus would have been 
heard in the thunder and recognized in the 
roll of the ocean, in the beauty of the 
flowers and in the sunset, but would have 
been too great for finite perceptions to 
grasp. Jesus has done more towards 
changing laws and customs, more towards 
affecting character, more towards bringing 
our ideal direct to God than all other peo- 
ple put together. 

June 17 

How many people look upon a China- 
man, an Armenian, a Roman Catholic, a 
Turk, all these different children of God, 
with anything but the recognition of a 
brother ! What we need is to love the 
Father in such a way that we regard every 
one as His child. You may say, "Are we 
to regard every foreigner as we would a 
native ? Are we to regard every stranger 
as we would a friend, or the members of 
our own family?" Why, God made us to 
love the home and the family circle, the 
father, mother, brothers and sisters, and 
meant no other place or people to be the 

6 9 



same to us. But the man who loves his 
home, who really knows what it is to love, 
is the very man to go outside and find a 
brother or sister. He knows what Infinite 
Love is. When this love rules, then there 
will be no difference in people ; no north, 
no south, no east, no west. This cannot 
come about through mere self-interest, but 
if God asks it to be done, we can do it for 
Him. 

June 18 

We can laugh and sing and dance and 
discharge life's duties better, if we are 
God's children, — if we become His sons 
and daughters as He is surely our Father. 

June 19 

The man who is a child of God, who is 
interested in Him, does not forget it behind 
the counter, in his business or anywhere 
else. Jesus would be Jesus no matter what 
he was doing or where he was. When 
he was a carpenter he was one of the best 
of carpenters you could ask for. When 
he was with the people he was one of 
their brethren. 

70 



June 20 

Jesus did not gain his victory oyer temp- 
tation simply by being virtuous. It is all 
nonsense to say that Jesus was merely 
moral. What gave him his victory was 
his love to the Father, his piety. 

June 2 J 

Jesus makes us long to be tempted in 
all points as he was, because those are the 
ladders up which to mount to the grandest 
development. 

June 22 

In this world the object lesson is what 
we want. To define the principles of 
music is one thing, to hear and enjoy the 
music is quite another. To define what it 
is to be a child of God is one thing ; to be 
a child of God is another. 

June 23 

We must become a loving being before 
we can begin to conceive the meaning of 
the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of 
heaven cometh not by observation ; it is 
within you. 

71 



June 24 

When Jesus said " I am the Way, the 
Truth, the Light," he was not understood. 
He meant that love was the truth — that 
was the only truth he believed ; love was 
the way ; love was the foundation of life. 
That was the whole of it, and he that is 
filled with love is the one who understands 
all this. 

June 25 

We are having a new race of beings 
evolved in the world. The difference 
between the highest animal and the lowest 
order of man is not as great as between 
the selfish man and the race of altruists, 
as they are called by scientists, — the race 
of lovers, as Christ would use the word. 
Eventually all other races on the face of the 
earth will give place to this final race of 
altruists, as the present civilization of 
Europe and America has succeeded to the 
ignorance of the Middle Ages. 

June 26 

Jesus had but one thought in his mind, 
but one purpose in his heart. He had 

72 



fallen in love with God and he was a per- 
fect son of Infinite Benevolence. He had 
not a selfish thought in his whole being. 

June 27 

The question we should ask is, What 
can I do for you ? That was the question 
of Jesus. He was willing to lay down his 
life for others ; not for martyrdom, but for 
service to mankind. He cured the sick, 
attended feasts ; anything that was needed. 
He was here to serve ; to be just like his 
Father. 

June 28 

The man who only cares for himself lives 
in a decent, proper and excellent way ; 
certainly makes a good citizen, a good 
companion ; but he knows no more about 
the condition of love — of altruism — than 
an idiotic brain knows about education. 

June 29 

Just in proportion as a person is wrong 
or self-indulgent, the wrong is an impassa- 
ble gulf for union between him and his 
friend, or between him and God. 

73 



June 30 

In patience, in cheerfulness, let us pos- 
sess ourselves and be cheerful when other 
people are cheerless. Do not pray that 
people who are disagreeable be removed 
from your surroundings ; let contact with 
them develop you ; let them be your gym- 
nasium. Cheerfulness is a cure for harsh 
judgments. It is easy when cheerful to act 
charitably towards other people. There is 
a power in cheerfulness to change the 
whole person so as to become a grander 
and better man. 



74 



July J 

We cannot forgive a sin until the sin is 
repented of and quitted. 

July 2 

Opportunity tells us what to do. 

July 3 

• We are continually praying, " Thy will 
be done," and yet we are continually post- 
poning the doing of God's will until we 
get to heaven. 

July 4 

Do that which is best according to your 
own judgment, but do not do it because it 
suits you. Ask whether it is better for a 
community. Every man can choose his 
own pathway, but let him choose it as a 

75 



citizen of the community, as a child of the 
everlasting Father, and as a possible child 
of immortality. 

July 5 

We always desire a leader who under- 
stands our difficulties and has gained his 
victory through similar experiences. We 
have a leader who knows how to sympa- 
thize with us and he is Jesus. 

July 6 

If we keep our eyes open to the value of 
little things, we shall appreciate the contri- 
butions of the little ones and of the widows, 
not merely in money, but in the kind word, 
the "Good morning" and the "How are 
you ? " It is an easy matter to give awa'y 
money if one has any, but not so easy to 
be always ready with the kind word or to 
keep patient. 

July 7 

Do you know how much we love to be 
trusted ? If there is anything which 
strengthens a person and lifts him up into 
something grander and stronger, it is the 
fact that some one has confidence in him. 

76 



July 8 

An angel is not a creature with wings, 
but one possessed of a large heart, filled 
with kind and thoughtful consideration. 

July 9 

There is an apparent bluster in the man 
who gets angry, but not half the strength 
there is in the man who controls his temper 
and returns good for evil and conciliates, if 
not himself, at least those who look on at 
the time. 

July 10 

Things come to us in one way and 
another and attack us on our weak points 
and we are afraid we shall fall. Jesus 
would say, " Listen to the higher voice and 
stand up clean before God and man." 

July n 

The failure of Christ's life was the failure 
to lift his nation from external formality 
into real piety. 

July 12 

Do good in little ways; in a "Good 

77 



morning ;" in a joke ; in all sorts of things 
that mean making others happy, all the 
way from washing the disciples' feet to 
dying for people. 

July 13 

We cannot teach the higher truths by 
words. When people get the holy spirit 
by deeds they understand it. 

July 14 

We can define anything, but a definition 
does not fill the entire soul. We perceive 
the fragrance of the rose, the blush of the 
peach through the intellect, and can define 
what we mean by these poetic expressions, 
but that is not the whole of it. 

When we undertake to define love, let 
us seize the central thought ; but we can- 
not associate one experience of love with 
another experience of love. An enemy 
comes to me hungry and I rejoice to feed 
him. Now I turn to my friend : there 
accompanies my interest in my friend an 
entirely different emotion from what my 
enemy awakened. While I am interested 
in both the relation is different. 

78 



July 15 

God has put his Son before us. and says, 
"This is my image. Fill yourself with this 
love. The only way to know me is to fill 
yourself with unselfishness." 

It takes a philosopher to understand a 
philosopher. It takes a poet to respond to 
a poet. It takes a perfectly God-like child 
to understand the Eternal Father. 

July 16 

Fervor without interest is sentiment 
only, — not love. 

July 17 

We can have a conversation with God 
any time if we will learn the language. 

July 18 

If we have around us neighbors, friends, 
in whom it is possible to increase the real 
life, ought we not to do it ? No matter if 
we are church members or not. We either 
administer to the life of those around us 
or we do not. We use our experience in 
such a way as to bless them or we do not. 

79 



July 1 9 

People excuse themselves for not going 
to church when in the country in summer 
because they go all the rest of the year ; 
because they hear poor sermons. I made 
up my mind that I had better go into the 
most miserable schoolhouse and hear the 
most miserable sermon, if need be, because 
thus my influence would be better on the 
community. 

July 20 

Do not marry a pretty face ; do not refuse 
to marry a pretty face. Do not marry from 
fancy. Thoroughly acquaint yourself with 
the other, even if you have to wait until 
you are old before marrying. 

July 21 

Nature is God in action. 

July 22 

If we should compare our look at the 
color and form of the daisy and rose with 
that of other people, we should be sur- 
prised to find the difference. Our relation 

8o 



to God is so individualized that each of us 
sees things differently. 

July 23 

A spirit is material, but not substantial. 
It is an intelligent, affectionate, conscious 
being, and God is simply that carried to 
infinity. 

July 24 

We are never satisfied with what we have 
attained. It is always the next book, the 
next game we are looking forward to. 

July 25 

May the spirit of Christ so fill our hearts 
that whatever we shall do will be a mani- 
festation of that spirit and be the joy of the 
Father and the peace of man. 

July 26 

I believe there are more people who have 
the spirit of Christ in them than we imagine. 
There are more people who are altruists 
than we have any idea of. 

8i 



July 27 

The genius of Christianity is love to God 
and love to man. 

July 28 

So many people fail to see Jesus. They 
merely see an historical character about 
whom many stories have been told, but 
they fail to see the real Jesus. 

July 29 

There is no more glorious way of being 
crucified than in quietly enduring, by throw- 
ing oil on the troubled waters, and by giv- 
ing a kind word for an unkind one. 

July 30 

If I do the best I can ; if I am filled with 
the spirit of Christ, I am sure that the work 
I do here will be just as important as if I 
were somewhere else, in some larger work. 

July 31 

I do not believe in the saying, " God 
appoints and man disappoints," but rather 
that God appoints and man reappoints. 

£2 



August 1 

Angels are made through little, quibbling 
things. To bear, day in and day out, the 
little aggravating things, the little cambric 
needles pricking into you every five minutes, 
requires a great deal more patience and 
heroic courage and love to God, than some 
seemingly great things. 

August 2 

There is only one attitude to assume 
when we come in contact with a horrid, 
trying disposition, and that is one of pity, 
compassion. 

August 3 

We want to be just like Jesus, to have 
more of his spirit, more of his disposition, 
so that whatever we may do we shall stop 
and ask, " Is this the way, is this the man- 
ner to help on the heavenly kingdom? " 

83 



August 4 

Activity is rest, if it is the right kind of 
activity. 

August 5 

Jesus would say, " What I can do to-day 
I will do cheerfully, patiently, in the pres- 
ence of the Infinite Father, and for the 
good of humanity ; and if I cannot do all I 
have planned to do, I will understand it is 
His will, and not worry and fret." 

The principal point in our work is not to 
reach a certain point at sunset, but that we 
should stand right in our place with those 
about us, and try to catch this Christ spirit 
and let others about us see it that they may 
catch it, and go away inspired with love to 
God and man, and have a little more trust 
in Him. 

August 6 

God supplies the power and then lays a 
plan before us, and, if we use our powers 
as he wishes us to do, we bless ; if not, we 
curse. 

August 7 

Some people say they do not know how 
to love God, " Go about and do good." 

8 4 



"He who loveth not his brother whom he 
hath seen, how can he love God whom he 
hath not seen?" Do good because people 
need it, without regard as to whether they 
deserve it or not. 

August 8 

People complain because they occupy 
low places ; -because they are carpenters, 
for instance. Why, Jesus was a carpenter, 
but that did not prevent him from being a 
Son of God. Housekeepers have as much 
to do in advancing the kingdom of heaven 
as anybody else. 

August 9 

You know we can be mirthful and still 
be ugly down inside, but that is not being 
cheerful. 

August 10 

We start in life caring for the body, and 
we ought to care for it, because it serves a 
double purpose. First, as the house in 
which we dwell ; and secondly, as the 
instrument through which we receive the 
contributions of the outer world. As a 

85 



tenement, it becomes us to keep it in good 
repair. As a complicated instrument, it 
deserves to be developed so that we can 
receive all possible through these five 
senses. 

August 11 

We are to do what Christ would do, to 
be perfect Christs in the little matters ; and 
if we consent to have the Father with us, 
we shall know that we are not alone, because 
He is with us, and that these little tormenting 
things are really opportunities to lift us to 
the Father in loving trust. 

August 12 

Do not lose faith in prayer ; that is, faith 
in communion with the Eternal Father. 
Let us pray without ceasing, not only with 
the spirit of a certain religious zeal, but 
with the understanding also. Let us throw 
ourselves into the dear Father's arms, and 
allow Him to take us into His heart. Then 
we will indeed be His children and will do 
His will out of love for Him and His 
saints. 

86 



August 13 

Life is being one with the Father, and 
being loyal to His children. 

August 14 

To intelligently like a person you must 
study his character. 

August 15 

I do not believe in the statement that 
" everything is intended for the best." I 
believe that God over-rules the evil that 
good may come from it. 

August 16 

The person who seeks to bless every one 
with whom he comes in contact sends 
forth an influence which is not lost. 

August 17 

It is because we are free to do certain 
things, right or wrong, that evil comes 
upon us. Providence has nothing to do 
with it. It is entirely the derangement of 
God's plan, and not at all the arrangement. 

87 



He could prevent all the results of our 
wrong-doing only by a miracle. 

August 18 

We complain at the wrongs done us ; at 
the evil things. How are we going to learn 
patience, skill, tact, returning good for evil, 
unless evil is done toward us ? 



August \9 

Let us be cheerful not simply for our own 
sakes. Those who believe in God do it 
for His sake. Let us be cheerful, if we 
have no belief in God, because the nation 
needs it ; because it will send out from the 
land the demons of harsh judgment and 
meanness. 

August 20 

We cannot mention a single temptation, 
that is, an opportunity with a desire to do 
the wrong that there is not also on the 
other hand, an opportunity to bless, to do 
the right. 

A temptation is an opportunity for the 
son of God to grow. 

88 



August 21 

Blind love is lack of judgment. Senti- 
ment is the feeling, the emotion, the sugar- 
coating to the cake. Love, true love, is 
unselfish interest in others. 

August 22 

If we are to eternally grow, we have not 
a moment to lose, for " what a man soweth 
that shall he reap." How important it is, 
therefore, that we hurry up and begin at 
once. 

August 23 

People receive things from God as if 
there were no God. They say it is a law. 
Law is but a mode of action, and this mode 
of action is the power of God. 

August 24 

God cannot, at the same moment, do me 
a favor and an unkindness. 

August 25 

We all have our Gardens of Gethsemane ; 
our trials in one way or another. Some- 

8 9 



times the threatening approach is more 
bitter than the experience itself. We 
have a perfect right to say, " Father, if it 
be possible, let this cup pass from me." 
But, out of our faith, we can add, " Do not 
mind the cry of Thy child, the anguish on 
my part ; Thou knowest what is best for 
me." It was perfect confidence in his 
Father that made Jesus breath his prayer. 



August 26 

Are we a long ways further ahead in the 
higher life than we used to be ? Are we 
watchful lest some deed should do an 
injury ; or the omission of some word or 
deed may fail to do good ? As we get 
more watchful along these lines, we get 
closer to God, and, as we draw closer to 
Him, we draw other people in the same 
direction. 

August 27 

Error does mischief ; fanaticism does 
mischief ; but belief in immortality has 
elevated people and will elevate us. 

90 



August 28 

Talk about sending missionaries to the 
heathen ! There are heathen enough in 
this community, that is, men and women 
who know nothing about the loving Father's 
care, who need to be taught. 

August 29 

You are born into this world God's child. 
Whether you will be a good child will 
depend entirely upon your choices. These 
choices give you character. God cannot 
give you character; man cannot prevent 
your having one. It depends entirely upon 
yourself. 

August 30 

It is not the amount of work done, but 
the manner, the spirit in which it is done. 
We are to be redeemers of everything that 
is evil and loathsome, and do it as if we had 
just one day to do it in, cheerfully, patiently 
and beautifully. Let the body get tired, 
but let the spirit keep calm and cheerful. 
In doing this we will be bringing in the 
very reign of heaven. 

9i 



August 31 

My life is entirely from the Father. He 
thinks of me as an individual and gives me 
my life, and I should recognize this personal 
interest in me and turn round and respond 
to it. We do not cultivate God's acquaint- 
ance. We sing " Nearer, my God, to Thee," 
but we do not know the meaning of the 
words ; they do not fill our souls ; they do 
not come from the heart. 



92 



September 1 

What is the church ? It is the oldest 
society in Christendom. It traces its his- 
tory way back nineteen centuries to Jesus 
of Nazareth as its founder. It has assumed 
a great many different forms along the line 
of its history. Just so far as these different 
churches have become schools for creed 
and ritualism, so far have they failed to 
accomplish that which Jesus intended. Yet 
in the midst of it all, such a power has Jesus 
had in the world that his spirit has moulded 
characters and raised a standard. This 
was the intention of the church. Just as 
schools have led people out of their physi- 
cal life into mental training and mental 
vigor, so the church has led people into 
spiritual living ; led them to be children of 
the Infinite Father ; to become as far as 
finites can become, angels on the earth. 

93 



September 2 

One thing that keeps us away from God 
is the feeling that He is infinite. How can 
we grasp the infinite ? Suppose a child 
has a very great man for a father and when 
he nestles in his father's arms, he should 
undertake to equal his father in his abilities, 
— what a mistake he would make. But if 
the little child just nestles in the father's 
arms and thinks about the intelligent mind, 
the kindness, the tenderness of the father, 
the child understands him. 

Let us try to think of the Eternal Father 
as near. Let us hear him, of course, in 
the voice of the ocean, in the storm, but let 
us hear him when he exhorts us to do 
something better than we have done before. 
Let us realize his tenderness. 

September 3 
God does not like drones. 

September 4 

You and I expect some of these days to 
come to the end of this journey. The 
question will be when the time arrives, 

94 



have we any reason to expect that we shall 
survive these bodies ? All we have to do 
in this world is to hope for a life to come. 
Those who begin by saying they know there 
is a life to come are the very ones who first 
become sceptical. You and I expect to 
live to-morrow because we have a right to 
hope for continuance of life ; so we have a 
right to hope for the eternal life. 

There are three classes who give three 
different reasons for expecting a future life : 
The first is composed of the Spiritists. 
They believe from their testimony that 
there is a life to come. I have been to 
forty-five mediums, but I could get nothing 
to satisfy me that they have anything con- 
clusive in their arguments. The second 
class is made up of those whose faith in 
Jesus is such that they take his testimony 
on the subject and expect to realize what 
he has promised. The third class do not 
depend either upon the communications 
from the Spiritists, or the testimony of 
Jesus, but draw their conclusion entirely 
from the character of God as manifested 
in creation. They say God could not have 
brought into being intelligent, affectionate 
children and then annihilate them. 

95 



Now putting these conclusions together, 
I cannot help believing, though I cannot 
prove it, that we are not separated from 
our dear ones, but are re-united in the next 
life. 

September 5 

We are limited and conditioned, but not 
governed by circumstances. 

September 6 

We have not to walk miles to find God. 
These beating hearts are conclusive evi- 
dences that He is within us. These con- 
sciences show His watchfulness ; this peace 
shows the result of doing His will and the 
kingdom of heaven is established within us. 

September 7 

There are times when you and I and 
every other person cannot see daylight. 
As Father Faber puts it in one of his 
hymns : " It is as if there were no God." 
It seems as if all good things had gone 
from us. When everything is clear, there 
is no trust, but trust comes when you are 
ill-treated ; when you are poor and others 

9 6 



are rich who have not worked as hard as 
you have ; when the few friends who ought 
to serve you turn against you ; when you 
are sick at a time when you can least afford 
to be. These and a hundred other condi- 
tions are those in which the question is, — 
Can you trust ? Can you trust intelli- 
gently ? Can you trust God enough to 
keep perfectly peaceful and contented? 
Out of this trust, this perfect confidence, 
you will be led to the expectation that it is 
all coming out right if you do your part. 

September 8 

When we go to a person to redeem him 
or to criticize, we should go in a spirit of 
meekness and love, and not in a fault- 
finding way, and so fill him with the good 
that it will crowd out the wrong. 

September 9 

God is not an exacting ruler, but an 
interested Father. 

September 10 

Suppose some one should speak to you 
a great many times and you never an- 

97 



swered ; suppose some one reached out 
his hand to you and you refused to take it. 
How long would it take you to cultivate a 
relation with that person ? When we re- 
spond to the Father ; when we say, " Yes, 
Father, I see because You have given me 
eyes to see with I understand, because 
You are helping me to think. I do not 
know how it is done. I long to do right 
because You whisper to me some lofty 
ideal. I am sorry to have done wrong, 
not because there is any penalty attached, 
but because You are not pleased with me " 
— when we come to the Father in this 
way, the result will be that the conviction 
will grow upon us that we are in the pres- 
ence of the Father ; that we see him just 
as we see everybody else. 

September J 1 
Perfect trust means perfect peace. 

September 12 

Let us stop and consider from whom all 
our blessings come. Where do you sup- 
pose man gets his brain with which to 

98 



invent ? Where do you suppose man gets 
his generosity with which to give ? These 
come in the constant stream flowing from 
the Infinite to us. 

September 13 

The people who do the largest amount 
of work with the least amount of wear and 
tear are the people who cultivate cheer- 
fulness. 

September 14 

The question is, is God good ? If you 
can discover in any way that He is good, 
trust Him ; but do not ask Him to do 
impossible things. 

September 15 

God is the Father of our spirits, the 
Creator of our bodies. 

September 16 

People fail to see their privileges in this 
world. You tell them to interest them- 
selves in their enemy and they say they 
cannot. If he is hungry, can you not feed 
him ? The very moment we begin to see 

99 



God and live the life of love, we have begun 
to grow. The great difficulty is that we 
do not see the privilege. One part of my 
education has been utterly neglected ; that 
is, the chance to love an enemy, for I never 
had one, and I believe the majority of 
people have never had enemies. We 
exaggerate people's impatience and weak- 
ness and call them our enemies. I say it 
is a privilege to come in contact with ugly 
dispositions. It is a privilege to surfer the 
torments and sickness and evils that come 
upon us. There is not a position in which 
people are in this world which is not a 
privilege, if we will only understand that 
we are to bless those who curse us ; to 
return good for evil. If we can only see 
this once ; only live it once ; just be willing 
to be misunderstood, ill-treated or abused, 
so as to be able to say, " Now is my chance ; 
this is my crucifixion ; what my great 
Master said, ' Forgive them, for they know 
not what they do,' I can say ; " then we 
shall understand our privileges. 

September 17 

Justice, fair dealing, lies at the foundation 
of God's throne. 

100 



September 18 

To be filled with love is to be willing to 
run God's errands, to be willing to bless 
anybody who comes in your way. 

September 19 
An illustration is not an argument. 

September 20 

Nature reveals God to an extent, but 
nature cannot reveal the love of God 
as Christ did. 

September 21 

The most conclusive proof to me of the 
benefit of the higher life is not a theo- 
logian's argument, but my experience. I 
know that love is better than hate. I know 
that patience is better than irritability. I 
know that a peace- maker is better than a 
war-maker. I know that a trusting heart 
is better than a distrusting heart. I know 
that the man who is living to serve, lives a 
happier, more delightful life than the man 
who lives selfishly. 



IOI 



September 22 

You must become a loving being before 
you can conceive of the meaning of the 
reign of the kingdom of heaven, or the 
reign of love upon the earth or anywhere 
else. The kingdom of love cometh not 
by observation ; it is within you. Suppose 
there was a kingdom of knowledge and 
people said where is this kingdom located ? 
You would say, here in the head. So it is 
with the kingdom of love, kingdom of 
heaven, — it is within you. 

September 23 

Which would you prefer to be, the 
strongest man that ever lived ; the greatest 
scholar in the world ; or this little Jew, 
Jesus, who, at thirty-three years of age, was 
executed? I suppose there is not a person 
on the face of the earth who reallv sees 
Jesus, who would not prefer to be him. 
You do not really see the athlete, or the 
scholar, but they reveal themselves by 
what they do. Now he who sees Jesus, 
who can lift the veil and look into his heart 
and see the peace and joy and gladness of 
his life, can understand that between him 

I02 



and the Father there was a perfect union. 
There is not one of us who would not 
rejoice to be that Jesus. 

September 24 

If you are "risen with Christ;" if he 
has grown into your thought ; if he has 
possession of your heart ; if he has presented 
the vision of love to your souls, so that you 
have come up out of your vices of the past, 
it is indeed a resurrection. But do not 
stop there. Drive out everything that is 
selfish, and fill yourself with everything 
that is heavenly and the resurrection will 
be complete. 

September 25 

Jesus was a perfect Son of Infinite 
Benevolence. He had not a selfish thought 
in his whole being. It was, " What can I 
do for you ? Lay down my life ? Very- 
well ; anything that will serve you." 

September 26 

Jesus was here to serve every moment, 
whether it were feeding the hungry, visiting 
the sick, or anything else. He was hereto 



serve, just as his Father does, whose sun 
shines on the just and unjust, and whose 
knowledge enters the mind of all. If his 
Father asked him to go anywhere, he went. 
If he asked him to surfer, he said," Certainly." 
His meat and his drink, the gladness of his 
life was in doing his Father's will. 

September 27 

What is it to love one's enemy? It 
certainly is not to love as you would your 
wife, or sister, or friend. It is to be interested 
in one's enemy. If you dislike your enemy 
you can, if he need it, give him food and 
drink or assist him in any way. 

The man who knows what it is to say to 
his enemy, " If you are hungry, worit\ love 
and feed you ; if you are in any need, wont 
I like to serve you," knows the meaning 
of the kingdom of love. 

September 28 

Contrast two persons ; one who is filled 
with gratitude to God, and another who 
says, "O, dear, dear! There is that thing 
which somebody else has that I might have." 

104 



One has the kingdom of heaven in his soul, 
and the other has the kingdom of selfishness, 
shall I call it ? It certainly is not the 
kingdom of joy and peace. 

September 29 

God rejoices over his child who does the 
right, mourns and laments over his child 
who will do the wrong. 

September 30 

There is a new order of beings who have 
the spirit of Christ. An order that will 
increase in number, in fullness and power 
in the world. Let us have more of this 
love. Do not let us be particular about 
whom we serve. If there are people in the 
world who need us, let us serve them. If 
they can serve us, all the better for them, 
but no better for us. If they are ungrateful, 
all the worse for them, but no worse for us. 
The Father is pleased. But we shall not 
fail. I can tell you, after forty- nine years 
of ministry, that " There is no such word 
2^ fail T 



1G 5 




October \ 

Let us see how many people we can win 
over to belonging to the new class of altruists. 
The creed will not answer ; the religious 
emotion will not answer. It must be a 
good, clear, honest surrender of the will to 
the Infinite will, so that we can say to the 
Infinite Ruler, " Thy reigri be established 
in human hearts ; Thy will be done." 

October 2 

What hinders the nearness of our relation 
to God ? The trouble is in the mind, in 
the intellect. How thoroughly do you and 
I comprehend God? We are told of His 
unlimited knowledge, and that His wisdom 
is commensurate with His knowledge. Our 
reverence is increased, the sense of His 
exceeding greatness is increased, — but 
there is no such thing as getting into His 
arms like a little child. Let us sustain a 
heart-to-heart relation with God. 

107 



October 3 

Notice the things which God is doing 
for us a Father, not merely as a Powerful 
Being. 

October 4 

What is God's idea of our good ? Some 
people think it means money ; others that 
it means popularity, or prosperity in any 
line which promotes the happiness of the 
individual. This is not God's idea at all. 
If it were we should have to say that He 
fails in a large majority of cases. What is 
His purpose ? It is to make every indi- 
vidual a child of His own, the life aim being, 
not self, but first the Father, and then, as 
a natural result, the Father's children. 
This should be our aim, and there is not a 
person in the world who succeeds in 
reaching that aim who is not satisfied with it. 

October 5 

Marriage is the loveliest relation that 
God ever arranged for man, but it cannot 
take place to please fathers and mothers, 
or for the sake of getting wealth or a home. 
It cannot be done on the theory that because 

108 



love does not come before marriage, it will 
after. It must be entered into out of a 
tender, strong attachment, which makes 
this particular one more than all else. 

October 6 

Under no circumstances am I alone, no 
matter what may happen to me. God is 
always present, not as a Great Being, but 
as a Father. 

October 7 

We do not realize the blessed gifts we 
have in our five senses, to which the Father 
gives His constant attention. All these 
blessings come to us whether we are in an 
ugly or pleasant frame of mind ; whether 
we are selfish or generous. His hand is 
never shortened. 



October 8 

We are constantly told of the infinite 
power of God ; of His mighty thought ; 
but God is love vastly more than He is 
power or thought. 

109 



October 9 

When you send some little thing to a 
sick friend to cheer him, that is a true 
Communion Service, because it is a heavenly 
thing. God smiles and the angels rejoice. 

October JO 

In doing the right thing, have a motive ; 
do it for some one else. " For thy sake" 
will accomplish everything. 

October 1 1 

Try to see without God ; to love without 
God ; to remember without God ; you can- 
not do it. You will find that he is giving 
you sight, affection, memory, every moment ; 
whispering to you to be an angel every 
moment. Well, then, let us turn round and 
say, " Father, you draw near to me, I will 
draw near to Thee and respond to Thee ; 
then I shall do Thy will on the earth as the 
angels do it in heaven. I shall not think 
of Thy greatness, but think of Thee as a 
baby does of its mother when in her arms." 

Let us draw nearer to God, that God 
may draw near to us. 

no 



October 12 

Where does the Father ever fail ? The 
failure is not on His part in any of the cases 
of sickness or poverty, or any of the many 
disagreeable things. Sickness' is a derange- 
ment of His plan, not an arrangement. 
Poverty is a derangement ; God intended 
all should have sufficient, and provided for 
all. 

October 13 

Where does trust in Providence come in ? 
We hold a two-fold relation to the Father ; 
we are sons of God and sons of men. As 
a child of the Eternal Father, I am per- 
fected, as His Son was perfected; through 
suffering. If I am to become a nobler, 
grander child of His through what I can 
get from suffering in my home, from sick- 
ness, from poverty, then does he not make 
all things work together for good, just in 
proportion as I love Him ? 

October 14 

It is not a question of what you want to 
do, but what is best for you, what will work 
out for you the grandest sum of good, 

in 



When God over-rules the weakness and 
folly of His children, so that you turn to 
Him and say, moment by moment, " Father, 
I want to be just what you want me to be, 
having just the manner, the calmness, the 
kindliness, the sweetness that I should 
have, because You want me to be that," 
then, as a child of God, you cannot help 
being a success. 

October 15 

I have had many experiences in life, and 
I cannot conceive of any, whether poverty, 
sickness, trials or difficulties, where the 
Father has not fulfilled the promise of 
making all things work together for good 
just in proportion as I have loved Him. 

October 16 

God is not responsible for the miseries 
of life ; for the bad husbands, scolding 
wives, bad companions. He mourns over 
them as much as we do and has infinitely 
more compassion for them than we have. 



112 



October 17 

Let us learn the lesson of faith so that 
we can say, "To-day, Father, or to-night, 
to-morrow, wherever I may happen to be, 
I will do Thy will." Then just when we 
are starting to do something not angelic, 
we will hear the Father's voice, " My child, 
my child !" and we will say, " Nobody shall 
see me do anything that is not in perfect 
harmony with being Your child ; I will do 
Your will on this earth as the angels are 
doing it." 

October 18 

We may have a grand exterior ; be 
every Sunday at church ; read the best 
books ; and everybody may think about us, 
and we about ourselves, that we are pretty 
good, anyway. But there is an eye that 
looks inside. " Ye are the temple of the 
living God." It may be that the kind of 
thoughts we cherish, the tendencies we 
gratify, corrupt the temple. We are in the 
same condition as the money changers in 
the temple. Jesus would say to us, " Purify 
the temple ; the pure in heart shall see God. 
You need to regulate these thoughts. 

in 



You need to remember that you are naked 
and open unto the eyes of God. If you 
will be perfectly at one with Him, cleanse 
the temple." 

October 19 

A watchmaker makes a watch not at all 
with regard to the accidents which may 
happen to it ; not at all with regard to the 
derangements which may take place in the 
watch. Still he is quite ready to repair 
the watch when it is brought to him. 

God created man without any regard to 
his injuring himself or his neighbor, but 
He has laid a plan in such a way that man 
cannot spare anything in his make-up. 
We find that He has made man free so 
that he can use his brain in the way God 
intended, or he can abuse it. When he 
dissipates he sees fit to use himself in that 
way. If anybody is to be blamed it is the 
man ; if anybody is to be pitied it is God. 
When the man repents of his wrong-doing, 
or when he brings himself back to God, 
and attends to all which shall increase 
rather than diminish strength, he will find 
the Father ready to forgive the past and to 

114 



increase the vigor, whether mental, moral 
or physical. 

October 20 

You would think that if anybody was to 
escape the evils of life it ought to have 
been Jesus. But did he ? He had not 
where to lay his head. He was misunder- 
stood continually by other persons. Finally 
he had the martyrdom of the cross. And 
what did he say ? At first, in all his disap- 
pointment, " My God, why hast Thou for- 
saken me?" and then, " Nevertheless, Thy 
will, not mine, be done." 

October 21 

There are times when we feel as if God 
had removed from the universe; as if we 
were left utterly alone without Him, just 
as Jesus felt on the cross. But do you 
suppose he had any doubt as to the finality 
of it ? His was the most crushing disap- 
pointment that could have come to any 
man. He came to lift man out of his cold- 
ness into warmth ; out of selfishness into 
love. Yet though he was executed like a 
criminal between two criminals, he said, 
" Into Thy hands I commend my spirit." 

"5 



October 22 

The dreaded evils of the future are 
always worse than the present. The things 
that may happen to-morrow, or next week, 
or next year are those we worry about. 
That is the time we need trust, which 
means that the Eternal Father knows best 
and loves us dearly. 

October 23 

" He went about doing good." That is 
the picture we should look at when think- 
ing of Jesus. Had the world done so all 
these years it would have progressed much 
more than it has. 

October 24 

Sometimes we get discouraged and it 
seems to us that we are failing in working 
out the good. Never you fear so long as 
you are doing your part. God has as much 
interest in your brothers and sisters as you 
have. 

October 25 

If we only have faith as a grain of mus- 
tard seed; that is, if we have a little faith 

n6 



in the Eternal Father, it will grow like that 
grain of mustard seed, until it removes all 
the obstacles in our pathway, and we 
become Christs ourselves. 



October 26 

The Eternal Father never lets His chil- 
dren drop into nothingness. They occupy 
a place in the Infinite heart that is never 
empty. 

October 21 

You can no more expect God to work 
miracles to accommodate your temporal 
affairs, than to work miracles in every other 
case, for then utter confusion would reign. 

October 28 

Let the future alone. Let the past 
alone. Let even to-night alone. Let us 
take moment by moment and say, " Father, 
I will be Thy child, and a brother or sister 
of humanity, and so use the appointments 
and disappointments of life that I may 
exert a Christ-like influence." 

117 



October 29 

Faith comes by faithing, as hope comes 
by hoping and love comes by loving. 

October 30 

There is no such thing as fate in the 
universe. Fate is a blind, unintelligent 
force. We should substitute the word 
opportunity for chance, and fortune and mis- 
fortune for luck, and then we shall better 
understand. It is a matter of ignorance 
on our part instead of a matter of fate. 

October 31 

Remembering Christ is not simply an 
act of memory, but it is breathing his spirit 
and living as he did. 



n8 



November 1 

The whole secret of happiness is gener- 
osity, the seeking not our own, but every- 
body's good. Every one of us can do this, 
giving our life as a ransom for many. 
Shall we not do it ? . 

November 2 

One of the great mistakes people make 
is in giving too much thought to the im- 
mensity of God ; to the Infinite attributes. 
Of course, we should recognize all these, 
but they do not draw us to God. Rever- 
ence, mere reverence, separates ; love, real 
love, wins, draws. 

November 3 

We have not the remotest idea of how 
much we are under obligation to this Jesus 
of Nazareth. It does not matter what your 

119 



theology is about this Son. Do you see 
the Son ? Do you understand the dispo- 
sition and character of this Son of Man, of 
Humanity, this Son of God ? If you do, 
and are drawn towards Him, you will turn 
to the Father. Through the Son you know 
more about the Father than all the theolo- 
gies in the world can teach you. 

November 4 

Just in proportion as we become relig- 
ious we get away from God. We substi- 
tute something else instead of God. Just 
as soon as we see the simplicity of Christ 
we understand the Father. 

November 5 

You may or may not believe in the mir- 
acles. It does not matter a particle. You 
must believe that these stories would not 
have been told of a cruel, unkind, ungener- 
ous man, but would only have been told of 
one who was generous, large-hearted. 

November 6 

We have the tenderness of God revealed 
to us in Jesus. Whenever I see a mother 

120 



with her baby in her arms looking at the 
baby in a way as only a mother can, I say, 
" God is Love." I have it revealed to me 
as I cannot get it in the ocean or in the 
wind or in a landscape. 

November 7 

People who are doing all kinds of ser- 
vice, whether to the rich or poor, ignorant 
or wicked, out of pure unselfishness, are 
nearer the Father than they would be by 
merely singing hymns and going through 
merely religious forms. They have caught 
the spirit of Christ. Let us catch His spirit 
and live as He lived, and we cannot possi- 
bly get up any scepticism. We shall not 
merely say it in our intellects, it will fill our 
lives and we shall know it because our 
souls are filled. 

November 8 

God is your Father and my Father. He 
has more sympathy with us than any 
parents ever had. He has more ambition 
for us. He will never be satisfied until we 
are angels. He will not give us up until 
we come up from a lower condition into a 

121 



higher. Our very safety consists in His 
looking out for us. 

November 9 

God does not hold Himself in ignorance 
of us up to a certain date and then when 
that time comes compare what we have to 
say for ourselves with an account and ren- 
der a decision. He knows the whole his- 
tory from the first choice up to the present 
moment. We may veil all this from other 
people, we cannot from Him. There is no 
such thing as cajolery with God. 

November 10 

What is the use of having an account 
with God ? An account generally is made 
for a result, as a financial account, for in- 
stance, and drafts are made upon it. We 
make a draft on God every day by our 
actions. The man who volunteers to do a 
bad thing, draws upon the Father, and in- 
stead of exciting His approval, excites His 
pity, His compassion. He draws upon the 
Infinite Source to go below the grade. 
On the other hand, the man who works out 
his salvation from all evil, who accumulates 



122 



not only clear thought, but righteousness, 
love in all directions, is transformed into 
the image of the Father and is filled with 
joy and peace. 

November J J 

How is our account with God made ? 
It is made each moment ; we write it out. 
When night comes the events of the day 
are entered into our character. We may 
have wished that we had not said a certain 
word of unkindness, done a certain deed ; 
we may have wished to recall moments 
and do something which we may have 
neglected to ; but what is written is writ- 
ten and the account is made. 

November 12 

Selfish people are insane when indulging 
in selfishness. They do not see things as 
they are. They are always drawing upon 
their imaginations, tormenting themselves 
and their neighbors. You long to say to 
them in a trumpet tone, " Wake up, and 
come out of this eternal self and rise in 
love to God and your neighbor. You are 
not only tormenting yourselves, but you 

123 



are influencing other characters, and they 
are so many witnesses to the account you 
are rendering to God." 

November 13 

Sins of omission mean a pile of wealth 
out and beyond one's self that might as 
well have been transferred into the soul. 

November 14 

Scientists have taught us the invariability 
of law ; that everything will act in precisely 
the same way under precisely the same 
circumstances. What is law ? It is God's 
regular mode of action. A law cannot 
work of itself. People talk about the laws 
of nature as though the laws were so many 
little gods setting up to do things of their 
own accord. For instance, it is your law 
to come with more or less regularity to 
church every Sunday afternoon. Your law 
does not come, but you come ; it is your 
mode of action to come. God was infin- 
itely wise at the start, and has seen no rea- 
son to change a single plan of His. We 
have to study His laws to understand how 
best to get along. We may go to the fire 

124 



to warm ourselves. That is what God 
intended. If we put our hand into the fire, 
it burns our hand, whether we are angel or 
devil, and it depends entirely upon us 
whether we choose to do it or not. God's 
plan is that the fire shall burn under those 
circumstances. Somebody may say, " Sup- 
pose I should meet with an accident and 
come in contact with fire, God ought to 
prevent the fire from burning then!' If He 
should prevent the fire from burning under 
such circumstances, it would be a miracle, 
which would be a violation of His laws. 

November J 5 

We are every one of us to stand before 
God. When ? Now! How ? By our 
choices. Our account is being written. 
Do you like what you are writing ? If you 
do not, go and change it. Co-work with 
Him so that without regard to anybody 
appreciating you in the least you will say, 
" Yes ! increasing and intense interest in 
the Eternal Father is what I want," so that 
when the record is at last made up it shall 
be said, "Thou art my beloved son, in 
whom I am well pleased." 

125 



November 16 

Those who are not economical in this 
world are doing the wrong thing. If peo- 
ple would begin life by laying up five cents 
a day even, they would find it would make 
a great difference in their future comfort 
and happiness. 

November J 7 

Suppose that a large area of land is sur- 
rounded by a high wall in which there are 
several apertures, through which various 
persons are looking. One person sees 
simply a collection of trees. Some one 
looking through an aperture some distance 
away from the first person sees only a plain 
and a pond. Still another person sees 
from his point of view nothing of the plain 
and pond, but a hill and a valley. So all 
around the area, every one sees something 
entirely unlike the views of the others. 
God Himself sees only the whole area. 

This is precisely the same in regard to 
truth. We open our eyes to the light and 
see according to our standing-point at the 
time and according to our ability. We do 
not create the landscape ; it is there before 

126 



us and everyone sees according to his point 
of view and his ability. We open our intel- 
lectual and moral eyes, and we are com- 
pelled to see what is before us, and we 
necessarily see differently. If the man 
who saw the plain and the pond in the 
landscape could change places with the 
one who saw the hill and the valley, he 
would see that they were both right. He 
would not only see the plain and pond, 
but add the hill and valley. 

We must remember that our neighbor's 
view has an element of truth in it, although 
it may not give a complete idea of the view. 
While we may believe that our ideas on a 
subject are correct, we must remember that 
our neighbor sees according to his point of 
view and according to his ability. I am 
sometimes surprised that some people call 
themselves philanthropists when they are 
so narrow and bigoted. How many peo- 
ple become scolds because they cannot 
understand the one little fact that two peo- 
ple cannot see exactly alike ! 

If we would be Christians in this world, 
let us not trouble ourselves about people's 
beliefs or theologies, but let us aid them in 
controlling their tempers, in trying to make 

127 



their lives sweeter and truer. You can 
depend upon it that in this way the Holy 
Spirit will enter their hearts, when all logic 
and argument would have failed. 

November 18 

If friendship had been upon a more ele- 
vated plane, people would understand love 
to God better ; but there has been so much 
sentiment called friendship, people are apt 
to think that religion consists of tremen- 
dous emotion and religious excitement. 
Love will go to the stake if need be ; will 
die for another. Real interest does not 
depend upon emotion. 

November 19 

It is easier for a camel to go through the 
Needle's Eye than for a man who is always 
looking after himself to be a true citizen 
of the kingdom of heaven. 

November 20 

There is nothing which requires more 
patience, meekness and generosity than in 
bearing with scolding people. They are 

128 



in the world to perfect others. How are 
we to become perfect in patience, to be 
forbearing", unless we have such people ? 
Let us then be glad if we be crucified 
forty times a day. 



November 21 

The good Father provides us with a 
spiritual gymnasium in the circumstances 
and conditions of life, and instead of becom- 
ing stronger, grander, nobler, and being 
perfected by suffering, we are apt to cry 
out as the child does in learning its lessons, 
"I don't want to practice this or that," and 
so we become just as babyish as the chil- 
dren are, instead of rising into a noble 
manhood. * 

November 22 

We have often confused the meaning of 
the word " Piety," or love to God, with 
something else, and made it mean one 
thing in one place and another thing in 
another place. Love is love, whether ap- 
plied to to an enemy, a friend or God. 



129 



November 23 

Just in proportion as we are true children 
of God, we shall have reason for saying 
that we have confidence in the plan He has 
laid, and shall have more and more confi- 
dence until we graduate from this world 
into the next. 



November 24 

To give one's life is not simply dying 
upon the cross at a certain time. It is 
every moment devoting one's self to the 
well-being, the actual improvement of every 
person with whom one comes in contact. 
Whoever came in contact with Jesus be- 
came the better for it. He was the magnet 
of the world drawing all people to Him. 



November 25 

People with violent tempers are apt to 
say, " Well, I am as God made me." No, 
you are not. God gave you the capital of 
energy, and you have turned it into 
temper. 

130 



November 26 

Every gift of God is a rap at the heart 
asking us to admit Him. If we do, then 
our thankfulness for His gifts amounts to 
something. These thanksgiving people 
dwell on the very borders of heaven. 

November 27 

Let us consider a little the gifts of God. 
When we wake up in the morning let us 
realize that He has given us the sunshine, 
the atmosphere to breathe, water to drink. 
At first we will say, " Father, I am glad." 
Then we will go on and tell Him we are 
thankful. And when we can look into the 
Infinite Heart and feel it going out to our 
own, then we are one with Him. 

November 28 

We have found that merely having a 
religion, a creed, or "reading our titles 
clear to mansions in the skies," is not suffi- 
cient. We have gone back to Christ. We 
are sitting at His feet and learning that the 
one who loses his life in service to others 
finds it. 

131 



November 29 

Let us ask for what we may, God can 
give us only what we are capable of 
receiving. 

November 30 

Friendship implies response, but we 
should not look for the response, the 
appreciation. It should be — I for thee, 
and thou for me ; each looking out for the 
other. If there had been more of this 
definite, unselfish relation between mortals, 
people would understand better a love 
relation with God. 



132 



December I 

People say they cannot comprehend the 
Infinite. Comprehend the Infinite ! Of 
course not. But just listen to His voice. 
There is not a man, women or child who 
has not heard it. Respond to it. Do His 
will. Trust Him. The more you do His 
will the more you know Him. The more 
you trust Him the more you will do so. 

December 2 

If, instead of arguing about creeds, and 
rituals, and all that sort of thing, the spirit 
of Christ had been understood and adopted 
by people, the millenium would have come 
long ago. 

December 3 

Suppose you and I, led only by the 
spirit of Christ, say, no foreigner shall ever 

133 



have occasion to say we have not done 
exactly as though Christ were at our elbow, 
and the Farher were looking right' into our 
hearts to see how we acted toward His 
children. Suppose we also regard different 
denominations in the same light. Let us 
not only recognize their peculiarities, but 
also their honesty and whatever is beautiful 
and sweet and Christian. Prejudice will then 
pass away. 

December 4 

Let us avoid prejudices in connection 
with political parties. Why not recognize 
the spirit of the man who takes this or 
that ground because it is the best course, 
he believes, for his country to pursue ? If 
a man deposits his vote conscientiously, 
though he be alone, why not recognize 
him as a true patriot ? Honor him, because 
he is loyal to his position. 

December 5 

When we discover that God, the great, 
intelligent, affectionate Being, loves every 
one of us as individuals, then we are brought 
into a condition in which we know what it 
is to say " Our Father." 

134 



December 6 

It is a good thing, once in a while, to be 
reminded of all the blessings we enjoy. 
We are rather apt to be indifferent to them. 
We fail to realize what these constant gifts 
are. They are so common, so constant, 
given to the thankful and unthankful, to 
those who work with or against Him, that 
we lose the elevation which ought to come 
from true thankfulness for them all. 

December 7 

God cannot prevent the mischief which 
people bring upon themselves by their own 
doings, but He can and does over-rule it. 

December 8 

Loving God and loving man bring into 
light the virtues of people. Selfishness, on 
the other hand, not only brings to the light 
the failures of people, but creates in the 
imagination other failures. 

December 9 

Gratitude is more than gladness ; more 
than thankfulness. It is a real apprecia- 

'35 



tion of the gift bestowed and a sending 
out of one's heart to the giver. 

December 10 

Look at God's picture-gallery! We look 
upon a sunset and are stirred by it. Every- 
thing which the Infinite Father touches is 
full of grace and beauty, and brings joy 
and gladness to His children. 

December 1J 

How beautiful the Common looks in the 
winter season with the sun shining on the 
trees covered with snow and frost ! People 
are apt to forget the Author of the sun, 
and they do not know how much they lose 
by not realizing that He gives it. A rose 
is beautiful that is bought ; but a rose that 
is given me by a friend has much more 
beauty and joy in it. 

December 12 

Did you ever notice the beauty of frosted 
windows ? We can see on them fern-leaves, 
trees, all sorts of things, made beautiful 
with the sun gleaming upon them. Did 
you ever think that the Infinite Father, busy 

136 



as He is, looking after that enormous sun, 
has plenty of time and a wonderful amount 
of inclination to look after His children 
going through the streets — the poorest and 
the richest — and so gives them this marvel- 
lous tracery of art because they are His 
children ? 

December J 3 

Suppose we were made blind. Think of 
it ! No more starlit nights, no more frosted 
windows, no more sunsets. Would we not 
beg of Him to lift the veil? And suppose 
He should, and all these beauties should 
pass before us. Could we help the flood 
of gratitude we should have ? Well, why 
not now ? Let us take advantage of this 
time to thank Him for all He gives us. 

December 14 

People cheat themselves out of a great 
deal by dreaming away about what they 
want instead of fully realizing all they have. 

December J 5 

The legacy which I care to leave is the 
building up of individual characters, not by 

!37 



dwelling upon the importance of character, 
but by filling all with the desire to do God's 
will. 

December 16 

The rap at the door comes in some way 
to every one of us, if only through our love 
for a canary bird. We must have some 
loved object to lead us up to Infinite Love. 

December 17 

We must learn to trust God ; to have 
confidence in Him. You say, " How can 
you call Him good? Why does he permit 
all the hardships ? " How can God, at the 
same moment, give you eyesight, hearing, 
reasoning, give you all the pleasures of 
society, all the enjoyments of affection, all 
the delights of nature, the growth we have 
every moment, and, at the same moment, 
do us injury or be indifferent to us ? 

December 18 

Just in proportion as we are intensely 
interested in a cause, in our family, in any- 
thing, it is not self-sacrifice, but our joy to 

138 



work for them. The person who really 
loves is on the lookout for little things as 
well as large things, in the interest of the 
one loved, and it is his privilege to supply 
them. 

December 19 

It is he that doeth the Father's will who 
knows the meaning of it. If you have 
been merciless and begin to exercise the 
spirit of mercy, do you not begin to experi- 
ence an amount of joy and peace you have 
never had before ? 



December 20 

Why does God care anything about the 
praise of mortals ? If you and I were 
looking upon an army of ants, or a swarm 
of bees, I think we should be quite indif- 
ferent as to their opinion of us. In size, 
we are very much less, in the sight of God, 
than these ants and bees are in our sight. 
Then why does God care anything about 
our opinion of Him ? We say He is 
infinite — boundless in every direction. 
Because He is boundless, His love is im- 
measurable. His interest in us is intense, 

139 



and it is because of this interest that 
He desires that we should have an intense 
interest in Him. 



December 2 J 

We should not shrink from any suffering 
that will make us exactly Christ-like. He 
said, <4 If any man will come after me, let 
him take up his cross and follow me." 



December 22 

One of the greatest mistakes people 
make is judging whole characters by single 
traits. 

December 23 

Here are two persons. One is filled with 
selfishness — he only exists. The other is 
filled with love to God and his neighbor — 
he lives. Just in proportion as a man lives 
for selfishness he is filled with the kingdom 
of hell. Just in proportion as he lives 
for others, he is full of the kingdom of 
heaven ; full of peace and gladness. It is 
impossible for a man to live a life of ser- 

140 



vice and not find himself having a heavenly 
life. 

December 24 

Just in proportion as we get the spirit of 
Christ and try to give it to the members of 
the family, to every one with whom we 
come in contact, we know what Christ meant 
by saying, ''As the Father sent me into the 
world, so send I you into the world." 

December 25 

The morning light is breaking. Christ 
is really entering the minds and hearts of 
the people whether they know it or not. 



December 26 

Instead of saying we will lay aside this or 
that sin, if we will give our hearts to God 
we shall be purified by the Love Spirit. 
A man cannot be a drunkard and love God 
with all his heart. The moment the motive 
is changed from self to God he need not 
sign the pledge ; intemperance is forgotten ; 
it is a necessary result of loving God with 
all your heart. 

141 



December 27 

If you love God with all your heart, you 
must love His children. If you purify the 
fountain the streams will be pure; selfish- 
ness gives place to love. 

December 28 

It is not the creed ; it is not the ritual ; 
it is not being a Unitarian ; it is not being 
a Trinitarian. It is whether you and I have 
found Jesus to be the Lamb who has taken 
away the sin of our hearts, as manifested by 
the tone of our voices, our patience and 
forbearance, and doing the right thing on 
all occasions, not for our own.sakes, but 
because it should be our meat and our 
drink to serve others. 

December 29 

Do you love the Father or are you 
among the indifferent? Do you, down in 
your heart of hearts, care enough for Him 
to do certain things, not to go to heaven, 
but just because He asks you ? Are you 
ready to say, " Certainly, Father, my meat 
and my drink shall be what you want me 

142 



to do ? " If you are, then you are qualified 
to be a citizen of the heavenly kingdom to 
be established on this earth. 

December 30 

The old ideas of God in the past, through 
which He was so fearfully misrepresented, 
are passing away. It was impossible to 
go to such a Being like little children, and 
know that He was ours, and we His, in any 
tender sense of the word. Just in pro- 
portion as the false ideas of God are removed, 
we shall love Him. God is seeking our 
love that He may have opportunity to 
serve us more and more, and lift us up to 
the height for which He created us. 

December 31 

What kind of an account with God are 
you writing to-day ? Are you of the selfish 
sort ? Are you leading a life in the home 
where your tone of voice, your manner, 
your disposition, your influence, are all such 
as will raise discord, and you will reap a 
harvest in the same kind? 

On the.^other hand, are you doing that 
which brings down a benediction ? Are 

143 



you of that sort that every child turns to 
you, every sinner turns to you for help 
and sympathy, and everybody who wants a 
companion is drawn to you ? , Are you a 
peace-maker? Your account is being 
written, and if of this latter kind, a blessed 
record it is, and you are entering into the 
" joy and peace of our Lord." 




144 



